


what hurts the most? (your captain is here)

by izumidos



Series: Kurobas Week 2017 [3]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Loss, Team Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-13 11:38:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11759046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izumidos/pseuds/izumidos
Summary: Winter Cup for Kaijou ends on a bitter note, and as a captain, it's Kasamatu's job to look over his team - especially over their ace, Kise, who's never known a loss like this before.





	what hurts the most? (your captain is here)

**Author's Note:**

> for **day 3: defeat/"it really is frustrating"**
> 
> i actually ended up loving kaijou's dynamic and team at the end, it's much more developed and sincere than the other gom besides kuroko's team, so i wanted to go more in depth on the moment after their loss.

For as violent as Yukio seems, he only means well.

 

He’s never been good with expressing himself, especially when it came to his emotions or to his words. The only thing he has confidence in his physical expression and his booming voice; it’s why he always smacks Kise on the back of the head to control him and why he always shouts to the team for every play during a game.

 

Together, it makes him a fearsome but respected captain – it reinforces the hierarchy he follows and abides by. He is authority incarnate, and only a few people can bypass it easily. No one can deny that he’s good at what he does, that there’s a reason as to why he was elected captain even after last year.

 

And as a captain, he has specific responsibilities: he’s in charge of everyone within the club whether it’s disciplining or training, he’s the leader who they follow with almost blinding trust, and he’s the one to carry their team to victory or the one to carry the team’s burden of loss.

 

Loss has never been unfamiliar company to Yukio, and even now, it’s still the same in the last game of his high school life.

 

His entire team is crying around him, the ugly and loud sobbing that makes Yukio feel like he’s failed. He tries to ignore the deafening cheers of their opponent, the jeering of the crowd who had rooted for them only to be in disappointed, and the irregular beating of his aching heart.

 

He goes to comfort his team which had already started to converge on itself to cry on each other's shoulders, but out of the corner of his eye, he sees something different.  

 

Surrounding him is the broken-hearted remains of his team in all of their sobbing loss of glory – but then there’s Kise, who’s still smiling despite said smile being a little wobbly and his eyes watery with tears beading at the corners.

 

And at that sight, Yukio knows. 

 

He turns around to walk towards Kise instead, frowning when said ace fakes a cheery laugh to greet him. Kise even starts to stammer out a random small topic, as if it would distract his own captain from fulfilling his responsibilities by taking care of his team.

 

His eyes scrutinize his junior, watching how the large smile starts to dwindle and how his legs start to get shaky – whether it’s from being stared at or from the weight on the injured ankle, Yukio doesn’t know. He just sighs before he goes to stand by Kise, and he starts to put all of Kise’s weight on himself instead.

 

He watches how Kise’s body falls a little too easily against his, one of his legs starting to shake too much for it to be just from overexertion. With a sigh and a little more strength, Yukio supports Kise as much as he can; his eyes don’t miss how Kise’s doesn’t quake anymore and how his breathing eases.

 

Really, what an idiot Kise is.

 

They start walking, and Kise finally loses his façade, body crumpling under the sudden onslaught of suppressed tears. His tears are ugly and loud, more so than the others, and Yukio feels himself wincing at all the emotion that the golden ace is relieving.

 

Kise’s faced both his first and second losses in Kaijou, also against his own teammates – the very same ones that had always held him to a lower standard. And Kise’s proven himself to be worth more than they had originally thought, but the thought of it does nothing to lessen the impact of each loss.

 

Yukio pauses there, Kise too busy crying his heart out to notice the sudden stop.

 

He can’t treat Kise like he normally does with his other teammates after a loss; they’ve all found their own ways of coping with it after experiencing it so many times before. They know the process of play, lose, try again and that the loss is never truly the end.

 

But Kise? He’s never had that, not when he’s been a prodigy for his entire athletic career and not when he’s won every single game in said career before he arrived at Kaijou. One loss out of many wins isn’t enough for him to understand how to get over it and what it means in the future. He’s still a child in that regard.

 

And that’s what prompts Yukio to do what he does next.

 

He slowly brings Kise into a tight hug, feeling how his junior curls into his warmth automatically and how his face buries itself in his shoulder. There’s already so many tears seeping into his sweaty jersey, but Yukio ignore it for Kise’s sake.

 

He can forget the image of being a strict captain abiding by the hierarchy; forget being a senior who has to teach this endearingly annoying junior what respect is; and forget being a distant fool who doesn’t know how to communicate with his words. 

 

He’s still absolutely terrible even with the spontaneous moment, but for now, their ace needs him – the plain Kasamatsu Yukio, just another, normal basketball player.

 

The basketball player who had worked his way to captaincy, who’s not a prodigy by any means, and the one who had lost their team the game in their previous year with only a single missed pass; the Yukio who had felt ultimate and carried the burden of it, much like what Kise’s doing now.

 

And yes, it’s true that they don’t have another chance with their bitter end at the Winter Cup, but that’s not important right now. He’s a captain with his duty to lead and take care of his team through every victory and loss; and that’s what he going to be damn doing.


End file.
